Park Animals will have to wait until Friday to find out how the Park Finance Office (PFO) intends to spend its funds in the coming year.

In a directive to all media (now in possession of the 2015 budget), Park Finance Officer Milton Struts cautioned against disclosing any information until a scheduled press conference at noon on Friday.

The budget, which is already two weeks late, has been the subject of much speculation since The Mammalian Daily broke the story in July that the Archons planned to tackle the growing inequality among Park Animals by streamlining the 2015 budget.

According to a trusted source close to the PFO, changes in the budget could include eliminating the 3% of funds that were allocated to tourism and tourism promotion, returning arts and sports funding to the levels set in the 2012 budget (more than twice the 2014 levels), and shaving a bit off special events to pay for better weather, healthcare and refugee services.

The Park Association of Shops and Services (PASS) released its report today on the May 31 stampede at Tallulah’s Toilettage.

The report chronicles the events before and after the stampede occurred. It also offers a list of recommendations that are the result of a series of meetings held by Association members in the wake of the tragedy that injured 68 Animals and resulted in the arrest of 35 others.

At a public event held this afternoon, owners of some of The Park’s grooming houses spoke candidly to attendees about their findings.

Amoltrud Poedel, owner of Amoltrud’s Aesthetics, said she wasn’t surprised by the May stampede; indeed, she had predicted such a thing would happen eventually.

“Times have changed in so many ways,” she explained.

“In the old days, we all did our own grooming, we procured our own food and we built our own dwellings. Now, we look to others to do those things for us. It’s part of a major shift in Animal life and so, unfortunately, was the stampede. Park life is not as it once was and we must learn to adapt to that reality,” Poedel  said.

Poedel also cited the added stress of the moulting season and what she called “a growing jealousy in certain species” as contributing factors.

Tallulah of Tallulah’s Toilettage, the grooming house at which the stampede occurred, said a shortage of workers skilled in proper grooming techniques was partly to blame for the incident.

“Most owners dream of having their businesses grow by leaps and bounds. But we have been overrun [by customers]. The need for grooming services in The Park has grown beyond our collective ability to fulfill it. And, as a result, some species feel hard done by, especially when their appointments have been put off for a day or two. When their anger comes to a head, that’s when we see this kind of behaviour,” she said.

A series of “Mongoose Summers“ is threatening our way of life in The Park, say the members of a coalition that has formed to fight for better weather.

The coalition, which is made up of the members of the Society of Concerned Park Cultivators, Planters, Growers, and Farmers (SCPCPGF), the Weather Makers, Producers and Sellers Alliance of The Park (WMPSAP), and the Park Association of Shops and Services (PASS), says that Park weather finally reached a crisis point this Summer.

“There’s no turning back. We have to do something right now or our population will not be able to feed or house itself within a decade,” declared A.P. Civet, of the Society of Concerned Park Cultivators, Planters, Growers, and Farmers (SCPCPGF).

In an interview with Mammalian Daily Radio,  Kalliope Sun Bear, president of the Weather Makers, Producers and Sellers Alliance of The Park (WMPSAP), confirmed that she has scheduled a meeting with Chief Archon Buckminster Moose on July 22.

“Our coalition will be putting together a statement…an ultimatum of sorts,” she said. “We are going to petition the Chief Archon to have the Archons take over the weather budget from the Park Finance Office. In our considered opinion, the PFO is not fit to make decisions regarding the purchase of weather,” she said.

The Park’s weather has been a contentious issue for some years now, ever since the Park Finance Office, in an effort to conserve funds, made the decision to purchase weather from outside The Park.

“From day one, that weather was of inferior quality,” Sun Bear said in the interview.

“And the result has been that what we didn’t spend on weather we paid dearly for in reduced crops and damage to our abodes. And that has to end right now.”

Mammalian Daily Exclusive

The 2014 Archons plan to tackle the growing inequality among Park Animals by streamlining the 2015 budget, a source close to the Park Finance Office has told The Mammalian Daily.

In a private meeting, the source, who wishes to remain anonymous, told the newspaper’s editorial board that the issue of growing economic and social disparity in The Park has “touched a nerve” with the Archons. As a result, they want to make some “concrete changes” to the way funds are allocated.

Buckminster Moose, in particular, is upset by what he sees as a dangerous economic trend.

“The Chief Archon has been concerned for some time about the direction The Park has been going in and he would like to see that direction change,” the source told The Mammalian Daily.

According to the source, changes in the budget include eliminating the 3% of funds that were allocated to tourism and tourism promotion, returning arts and sports funding to the levels set in the 2012 budget (more than twice the 2014 levels), and shaving a bit off special events to pay for better weather, healthcare and refugee services.

While all these changes are being weighed and debated, “nothing is set in stone yet,” the source cautioned.

The Park Finance Office will present its financial projections for 2o15 in August.